Cruel, corrupt and full of hatred  it's Iran's mullahs who are to blame

by ANN LESLIE, Daily Mail

Last updated at 08:58 18 July 2006

Oh god. Oh Allah. Oh whoever you may, or may not, worship — how long must this go on? The crisis and bloodshed in the Middle East seems endless, and insoluble.

In decades of covering the region, I have seen 'hopeful' peace plans come and go.

But every time these plans fail — as they always have done — blame is variously attributed to Zionism, Islamo-fascism, the Americans, Jews in general, corrupt Arab dictators and, of course, Britain for having been the imperialist power that divided up the Muslim 'caliphate' after the defeat of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.

And did I mention Uncle Tom Cobley?

So often, the blame game in the Middle East seems to be the only game in town.

Now, Bush and Blair are playing it — not only (correctly) accusing Hezbollah, the heavily-armed and disciplined Islamist paramilitary group in Lebanon, of provoking the latest conflict, but also Iran and Syria, a secular dictatorship run by the Alawites, a small Shia sect.

Syria doesn't mind murdering its own fellow Muslims if it deems them to be threatening the brutal, stupid and corrupt Assad regime.

After all, the father of the present hereditary ruler of allegedly republican Syria cheerfully flattened an entire neighbourhood of the city of Hama which housed Islamic opponents, including their women and children. The Arab world scarcely shrugged.

Corrupt

But, of course, if militant Islamists — who wouldn't be tolerated in Syria — set about killing Israelis, well that's fine by the Syrian regime: Ah, dear Arab brothers, do you want some money, offices, transport facilities, the odd rocket or two?

No problem! We want to get rid of the 'Zionist entity' too! As you know, we (unlike those U.S.-toadying Arab regimes such as Jordan and Egypt) don't even recognise the 'Zionist entity' as a legitimate nation.

But it is Iran, a martyrdom-obsessed Shia theocracy, run by corrupt and relentlessly cruel mullahs (one of whom, under Sharia law, strangled to death with his own hands a teenage girl for 'immorality') which is largely responsible for what is going on now on the shores of the Mediterranean.

The thousands of rockets which Hezbollah claims to possess come from Iran, via Syria.

The abolition of Israel has been a formal part of Iran's constitution since the 1979 revolution (when the Ayatollah Khomeini, who later condemned

Salman Rushdie to death for publishing a novel which he found offensive, despite never having read it, came to power).

When I last went to Friday prayers in the Iranian capital Tehran, a sleek, fat, deeply corrupt ayatollah, swathed in a white turban and wielding a Kalashnikov, gave the sermon. He was the mullah whom the West had fooled itself into thinking was 'pragmatic' and 'moderate'.

And what did he preach? It was the usual bloodthirsty rant: 'Death to Israel!' 'Death to America!' 'Death to Britain!'. (To the Iranian regime, America is the 'Great Satan'; Britain is the 'Little Satan'.)

Recently, that same ayatollah declared that Iran didn't have to go to the trouble of 'wiping Israel off the face of the map' (which the loopily fundamentalist Iranian president declares to be his aim).

This 'moderate', 'pragmatic' mullah confidently predicted that the two terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas would — thanks to Allah, the most merciful, most compassionate — do the job instead.

Hezbollah was set up in the Eighties by Iran's Revolutionary Guard in response to the long and bloody occupation of Southern Lebanon by Israel. Years ago, I was told by a Hezbollah spokesman in Beirut that 'we are here to drive the Israelis out of Lebanon'. But the Israelis left Lebanon six years ago.

So why does Hezbollah remain in place? Because it is dedicated not to freeing Lebanon from foreign forces, but to destroying Israel.

Its manifesto includes the Russian tsarist forgery The Protocols Of Zion, which alleges a plot by Jews to conquer the world, as well as one of the ahadith (the sayings of the Prophet), which declares that Paradise can only be attained if all Jews are destroyed.

It is horrifying now to witness the fact that, between them, the implacable Hezbollah and the implacable Israel are destroying Lebanon piece by piece.

When I first went to Beirut, it was dubbed the 'Paris of the East': sophisticated, cosmopolitan, laid-back, seductive, louche, smelling of coffee, croissants, intrigue, and good red wine — of which the Sunni Muslims as well as the Christians were very fond.

Seductive

I would stay in the achingly glamorous St George hotel (still in ruins) on the coastal corniche; it used to be full of spies (such as Kim Philby) and 'businessmen', and all-round chancers, wheeler-dealing effortlessly in several languages, surrounded by glittering shoals of heavily made-up, bejewelled wives, girlfriends and high-class tarts.

That seductive, open-hearted, open-minded, witty and glamorous Lebanon was gradually beginning to emerge again after 15 years of civil war.

Last year, I went there after the so-called 'Cedar Revolution' which, thanks to massive popular and peaceful demonstrations, drove the hated Syrian occupation forces out of the country.

But then I went to the southern suburbs of Beirut — now being bombed by the Israelis — to interview a member of the Hezbollah 'politburo'.

This was a totally different Beirut; it resembled the poorest neighbourhoods in Tehran. The broken-down streets were full of black-veiled women and Hezbollah flags — pale yellow and green, adorned with a fist bearing a Kalashnikov.

Portraits of the grim, beetle-browed Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini and the current Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, adorned the lamp-posts.

And posters saying 'No to 1559' were everywhere. The UN Security Council's Resolution 1559 demanded that foreign forces (i.e. Syria) leave Lebanon and that all militias be disbanded. Syria left, the various militias were disbanded — but not Hezbollah.

And now, of course, it has — largely because Hezbollah in Lebanon is a fully-armed state-within-a-state, bent on Israel's destruction. The Lebanese Government is too weak to destroy Hezbollah (besides, many of its military men are, like Hezbollah, Shia Muslims and therefore unwilling to fight their 'brothers').

So what can the world do, apart from wring its hands?

It could perhaps assemble an international force (including Arabs) to create a de-militarised zone on the Lebanese/ Israeli border. And call for a ceasefire. And pressure Hezbollah and Hamas to relinquish the Israeli soldiers they have kidnapped.

And, of course, pressure the Israelis to hold back and not dismantle hapless Lebanon for its failure to control its state-within-a-state. Only the Americans — who keep Israel afloat with aid and weapons — can do the latter.

But both Syria and Iran must be willing to use their influence to rein in their terrorist surrogates.

If they don't, I'm afraid that beautiful, seductive Beirut will keep on burning: the smoke from its bombed buildings, the despairing cries of its people, will continue to bring back terrible memories of those long, murderous, civil-war years which, until the past few days, they believed they had finally left behind.